by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Tiger Woods joked he was out of his comfort zone Monday night as he walked the red carpet with girlfriend Lindsey Vonn at the Costume Institute Gala in New York, dressed in a black tuxedo and talking about fashion all night as he supported Vonn's endeavors with Vogue.

"It was certainly different," Woods said. "Lindsey wanted to try and grow her brand. She's come out with a new perfume and makeup line, so that was a big thing for her and I'm supporting it. As you know, I'm not really big into fashion stuff."

Woods wasn't exactly in a comfort zone Tuesday afternoon, either, as he walked the green carpet of the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass with his caddie, Joe LaCava.

If anyone has ever had the upper hand on Woods throughout his career, it's Pete Dye. The diabolical course designer's handiwork here has been a thorn in the side of the world's No. 1 and the best player of his generation. That's especially true at Dye's masterpiece, the Stadium Course that is home to the PGA Tour's showcase event, this week's Players Championship.

While Woods has won 77 PGA Tour titles, including 14 major championships, and counts more than 100 wins worldwide on his resume, he has won just once in 14 starts in The Players, in 2001, and has just two other top-10s. His stroke average of 71.44 in 55 rounds on the Stadium Course is the worst of his career in any event he's played a minimum of 50 rounds.

His worst hole of any he's played more than 50 times is the par-4 18th on the Stadium Course, the water-protected 462-yard monster where he is 15 over.

Last year, Woods, who is the only multiple winner this season on the Tour with three wins, tied for 40th.

"It's one of those courses where they've got some tough lines, and if you're not playing well, you're going to get exposed," Woods said Tuesday after a practice session. "This is a golf course in which you have to drive the ball really well, and then on top of that, now that it's gone to Bermuda, these greens have gotten a lot more fiery coming into them. So it makes it even more important to hit the ball in these fairways to have a chance to spin the ball.

"You miss these greens, and you've got some of the weirdest, funky little shots that you'll ever face. â?¦ Some of the years I've driven it well and not hit my irons well, and other years I've hit the ball great and not putted well, and other years I've drove it awful and didn't score well. You've got to have all facets of your game going here."

Johnny Miller, lead golf analyst for NBC, said Woods' woes in The Players have everything to with Dye's golf course.

"I like Pete Dye, but boy, his courses, they don't take any prisoners or whatever that saying is," Miller said. "It's a hard course and it's hard on anybody. I think if Arnold Palmer would have been in his prime, he would have had trouble winning this because he was sort of a slasher and driver of the ball sort of low.

"It doesn't necessarily match anybody's game, especially with the different wind directions and different course conditions. It's just one of those courses that you hope the week goes well, where a lot of weeks you can almost predict, well, I'm going to do well, I've got everything going well, I'm putting it good.

"Then you come to this championship. And you'll think, I'm playing well, (but) we'll just have to see."